I'm writing up an adventure set at an abandoned arcology, loosely modeled on a nightmare version of EPCOT, and looking for some cool mad science-y encounters, monsters, &c. to put in there.
The place was established out in the swamps as "the blueprint for the cities of tomorrow" but after a succession crisis when its ratfolk founder died, it was torn apart in a civil war. Some people got out, some died, and some got turned into monsters (undead, mutants, and things like that).
I realize morlocks are kind of the default monster for any lost city but I think this place has only been abandoned for about ten or fifteen years which is not enough time for morlocks to happen.
The overall tone I'm going for is kind of Bioshock-meets-Bloodborne (especially the Byrgenwerth College and Research Hall areas). What are some good monsters that fit that kind of visceral scifi-horror flavour?
The Ratfolk founder could have become undead forgetting his original concept or deciding or other creatures make better citizens.
I think the founder just died, but after he did, power was seized by a much more overtly villainous character (Michael Eisner) who turned the place into a police state and ultimately lead to its downfall. Most of the really bad stuff comes from him, and he might still be lurking around as either a lich, a technological lich (like Alling Third from the Iron Gods adventure path), or just a very evil and insane guy. Probably the big bad of the adventure, either way.
Monsters I currently have:
-caulborn (they had an embassy here before the city fell, and a few are still trapped inside, half-starved)
- otyughs (a colony of them live in the city's sewers. Together with the caulborn, they're the most reasonable guys around)
- a nuckelavee roaming around the Jungle Cruise (attracted by the pollution the otyughs couldn't clean up)
- phantom armour (pretty much animated mascot costumes)
- vukodlak (the bad guy had a secret police force of werewolves, who were kept locked up in the day and only released when they transformed. They starved to death when the city fell, and came back as vukodlak)
-gravesludge (the bodies of everyone who died in an elevator crash when the power went out; probably a few Haunts around them too)
- necrocrafts swarming in the rafters of one of the domes (as constructed undead, these guys would be one of the first clues that there's a conscious and evil force, and not just bad luck and neglect, behind this place)
I would add 8 stages to the history of this arcology.
- Ideation: A group came up with the idea.
- Construction & Usurpation: The idea was started to put into motion, but then an outside individual or group (possibly an investor) started to meddle into it, twisting its initial concept.
- Rocky Start: Built out of a mix of two conflicting ideas, the arcology starts off stumbling in its steps, it's a hard time but people make do.
- The Good Luck Run: Something happens that causes the arcology to function better, ideally external factors (a nearby town being razed, its geographical place benefiting certain things, etc.) This leads to a silver age filled with promise.
- The Boom: A radical idea is introduced. This leads to a golden age. This idea elevates anything that happened before.
- The Crisis: Something happens that starts showing that the idea is unravelling, the golden idea is attacked, but the arcology remains vibrant.
- The Sin: A new idea is introduced to bring the arcology back to its glory... but it is built on something quite evil.
- The Fall: Shit goes south.
As players delve into the arcology, they can discover more about each of the stages. Perhaps they never knew about the Ideation – perhaps the initial community that planned to build it holds the key to its demise, or to restoring it.
Weaving these stages together can help you build different areas too.
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I have all of those stages, though not entirely in that exact order.
The city's founder was a ratfolk named Snye Welther. He built the city of Morrowmarsh (Ideation, Construction) deep in the Mudbottom swamps, and once things were up and running (Rocky Start) they were pretty good. They attracted the attention of some of the brightest minds around, and were a fully-functional self-sustaining city (Good Luck Run). Although mostly isolated, they did operate the Hospitality Towers, where officials from other governments would be hosted while they toured the city, since Welther was very proud of how well it ran and he wanted his ideas to be imitated elsewhere. As the Hospitality Towers became an increasingly prestigious place, it also became a minor resort for simple tourists, bringing in a bit of outside cash, but overall, Morrowmarsh withdrew from the issues of the outside world, with little need for trade in anything but ideas (Boom).
After Welther died (Crisis), power was seized by one of his most trusted advisors, the gnome Eisen Kals (Usurpation, a lot later than your model had), who had even more ambitious ideas: Welther had been content to build the society of tomorrow, but Kals wanted to build the people of tomorrow (Sin). His regime became increasingly obsessed with experimental surgery, mind-altering drugs, and other alterations to the humanoid form. He established a secret werewolf hit squad to dispose of his enemies. He also focused the Hospitality Towers more on pure hospitality than on exchange of ideas, although a few special guests from the hobgoblin Confederacy and other evil powers were given tours to see how he had cultivated a pliable populace: basically a Lawful Evil vision of "the city of tomorrow".
The people weren't as passive as he thought, though, and they began leaving in droves. Eventually Kals shut down the gates out of the city and put the whole place into lockdown, establishing martial law. This erupted into a full-scale civil war, and, with nowhere else to go, the city tore itself apart (Fall).
Just discovered this third-party monster and I've decided that a lot of the city's success came from Welther wishing on a star. Now he is a starbound petitioner, returning to the ruin as the comet is once again visible in the sky.
https://articles.opengamingnetwork.com/2018/04/starbound-petitioner-cr-6/
Seems like a great campaign!
So what would be some good monsters to incorporate here?
If you do Byrgenwerth, you need to show how they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams too – perhaps Lawful-aligned outsiders took an interest in the city, and perhaps some of them lay in wait in the utmost depths of the town.
- Welther's vision perhaps attracted a Rishi Manu, who came to guide him into creating a vision that stood beyond time and ushered a new era for mortals. Together, Welther could have created a Planar Ring – an underground facility that allows interlinking with other planes, for profit. This is probably the most ambitious venture in the Material Plane? Perhaps Welther's death is tied to this. Upon Welther's death, maybe one of Eisen Kals' allies bound the Rishi Manu and began harvesting its essence, organs, for study and profit. Perhaps this creature and its host of Manasuptras lie in the Planar Ring, twisted and furious, tortured and maimed.
- Upasundas could be fun as tourguides to the Planar Ring, being able to point to many directions at once, while serving double duty as peacekeepers.
- With the Manasuptras bound, that would have invited the Planar Ring to be used as a gateway for Kytons – Ostiarius could roam in bands, advertising the city to outsiders to witness and participate in Eisen's fleshcrafting experiments. Oitos would have been quite welcome in Hospitality Towers...
- Tumult Dragons used to flock to this promising land... as it fell into further degradation, they started to flee... Eisen sought to keep them around for the publicity, and deployed psychic bombs that turned them into Echohusks... and then used them pretty often as floats for parades.
If you do Byrgenwerth, you need to show how they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams too – perhaps Lawful-aligned outsiders took an interest in the city, and perhaps some of them lay in wait in the utmost depths of the town.
I don't want to get too deep into the weeds of outsiders; I think maybe one or two might work but I feel like once you get into other planes and pocket dimensions the whole thing becomes a little bit too ungrounded.
I was thinking of having a Div lord it over one of the ruined districts, since they're all about ruining the ambitions of mortals, but I can't find any that work specifically for this. I was also thinking that maybe one or two of the Towers guests were secretly onis or rakshasas, and are still up there. Kytons fit the theme, definitely, but I'm not sure why they would linger in what is basically a dead city.Also I'm trying to keep it so that there's no one monster or creature in charge of the entire place, so there shouldn't be many monsters that are really high-level and smart. Plenty of rampaging dumb beasts, but I don't want too many powerful fiends around.
Oh man, I would still use some Ratfolk for enemies in this area.
The ever-popular Ratfolk Beastmorph-Vivisectionist. With Scurrying Swarmer and a Mauler Tumor Familiar.
And a Ratfolk Alchemist with the Ectoplasm Master, Plague Bringer, and Reanimator archetypes all stacked up. Yeah, it's as gross as it sounds.
Together, the two of them are capable of making some disgusting abominations...
Don't remember what Beastiery it was but Fleshwarped critters all of them are perfect. Instead of being Drow made the gnome and Hobgoblins made them. Ghosts work especially well since a lot of people died violent deaths in the city. As far as the gnome himself make him an Alchemist combination. It fits with your theme and you could say he's made his version of the Sun Elixer. He's still alive and now young again. His mental stats are boosted with his physical stats being what you need them at.
Fleshwarped creatures have definitely occurred to me. In my setting, they're not unique to the drow; derros do some fleshwarping too, so maybe Kals and his crew were the first surfacers to dabble in it.
Ghosts, absolutely. The Hospitality Towers is basically the Tower of Terror, full of hauntings, ghouls, and even some undead oozes roaming the elevator system (made from the mangled remains of everyone who died in the elevator crash).Kals is definitely an alchemist, probably of the pharmacologist archetype or something like it. Not sure yet if he will be Sun Elixir-ed (not something I had thought of, but a good idea!) or a cybernetic lich.
Or maybe he's turned into a kyton himself?
...or a cybernetic lich.
I have an absolutely wonderful Android Lich that is a gestalt of Constructed Pugilist-Living Weapon Brawler and Crossblooded Sorcerer (Impossible and Nanite Bloodlines)... robot arm, energy weapons, Lich stuffs... lots of fun.
Let me know if such a thing suits your fancy.
...or a cybernetic lich.I have an absolutely wonderful Android Lich that is a gestalt of Constructed Pugilist-Living Weapon Brawler and Crossblooded Sorcerer (Impossible and Nanite Bloodlines)... robot arm, energy weapons, Lich stuffs... lots of fun.
Let me know if such a thing suits your fancy.
I was thinking of basing him more on Alling Third from the Iron Gods adventure path.
I like your grossout ratfolk alchemist ideas. Not quite sure how to incorporate them into the backstory but I'll figure something out.
If there's a vivisectionist I can probably work in some disturbing Island of Dr. Moreau flavour with some creepy herky-jerky anthropomorphic animals straight out of the uncanny valley (in which case they would probably end up as a very dark parody of the animatronics at Splash Mountain).
You said that there's no one monster in charge of the whole. So I imagine multiple factions are vying for power/territory.
The Ratfolk are just one such faction. Their defining principle is that resistance is futile. You either join them willingly, or they bring the plague. Prisoners are subject to horrendous experiments and the dead are brought back to serve an eternity in undeath.
You said that there's no one monster in charge of the whole. So I imagine multiple factions are vying for power/territory.
The Ratfolk are just one such faction. Their defining principle is that resistance is futile. You either join them willingly, or they bring the plague. Prisoners are subject to horrendous experiments and the dead are brought back to serve an eternity in undeath.
Factions, yes, but most of them are limited to very small gangs. There are almost no humanoid-type creatures left alive in the whole city. Most of the creatures around are barely sentient at all, if that. It's a ruin, not an ongoing war zone.
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Consider the ecology of Florida if you are going into the Earth After People theme. Torrential rain and seasonal hurricanes can punctuate the adventure. Reclamation of land by the Everglades, shifting islands in the Keys. And the heat.
Then there is how technology influenced the history of the area. Putting railroads further into the state opened up vast areas for development, and air conditioning made it attractive for snow birds.
Perhaps the area was altered on a larger scale, weather control machines are failing or having the opposite effect on the weather. The land itself is an enemy of people intruding upon it and sends natural disasters at the worst possible moments. Spirits of nature seek propitiation from the party or else.